Devil's Due [h.s.]

Chapter 49

Chapter 49

"I think I'd fuck the Property Brother."

"The brother?" Olivia shifted to glance over her shoulder at Zoe, who was sitting contemplatively in the armchair a few feet away. "There are two, Zo. Which one would you fuck?"

"Stop moving, Liv," I murmured under my breath, trying to hide my grin.

My fingers were wrapped around Olivia's, fighting to keep them steady while I layered a thick coat of red polish atop her nails. The shade glistened beautifully in my lamp-lit living room. The two of us were sat on the couch, Olivia's legs sprawled in my lap. On the floor across from us, Angel and Raven lounged, a bottle of wine in each of their hands.

"The hot one," Zoe replied as if this were obvious. "The one with the curly hair."

I scrunched up my nose, coughing back a laugh. "Zoe, neither of them have curly hair. And aren't they twins? Don't they look the same?"

"'S gross if they're twins," Angel piped up. She'd nestled herself between Raven's legs, tossing her head back to rest in the crook of her girlfriend's neck. "The amount of sexual tension those two have–"

"Gross!" Zoe cried, grabbing a pillow from behind her back and tossing it at the two girls sat on the floor. It missed by a foot. "Do not say that about my boyfriend–"

"You don't know the type of hair he has," Olivia rolled her eyes teasingly, leaning forward to expect my handiwork on her nailbeds. "Pretty sure you weren't even talking about the right person, either. Need me to pull up a picture?"

Shaking my head, I reined in another laugh, keeping my attention on the task at hand. The five of us had been in my apartment for a few hours now, talking, watching movies, eating, and getting drunk. I hadn't planned on them coming over today. I hadn't even planned on seeing anyone today, fully prepared up until around noon to keep myself isolated in here to sulk for the entire duration of the night – wondering why Harry hadn't responded to me and contemplating over and over if I'd done something wrong. Trying to figure out how to fix what I'd said to him at the studio, considering he wasn't answering my calls.

By the time 5 pm rolled around, I could no longer stand to be by myself. I was going crazy and knew that, if I spent just one hour more alone, I'd be taking a taxi to the underground basement where I knew a certain fight was happening tonight if only to make sure that Harry was okay. I knew how hard these days were for him and the fact that he'd been completely silent on his end since Monday was terrifying. It only made me assume the worst.

I knew that I could text Morgan, had a feeling actually that she would be more than willing to disclose with me whether or not Harry was still alive and well, but having hovered over her contact name for long enough this morning – I'd resolved that that was a certain line I wasn't yet willing to cross. For a girl who made damn sure to let Harry know we weren't even friends on Monday, breaching his privacy and asking the people he surrounded himself with whether he was doing well would drive him up the wall. I knew that it would.

Him ignoring me was completely warranted. Yes, he'd been a dick to me the first few weeks we knew each other, but he'd grown a lot since yet. He'd made a huge effort to be nicer, to make sure that I was included in things that he would have otherwise hidden from me, and I'd completely blown any and all improvement the two of us made when I'd blown up at him on Monday. On the day of my birthday. When he'd still left me the most beautiful gift, I'd ever received from someone, even after receiving a verbal lashing.

All I wanted was for him to talk to me.

And having a feeling he wasn't going to anytime soon, I need something – anything to distract me from heading over to the fight to find him. To try and offer him some comfort when I knew he probably wouldn't want it. Which was why I'd wound up texting my friends to come over, all of which happily obliged, not once questioning the reasoning why I wanted to get drunk on a Wednesday. Even Olivia, who hadn't been able to make it to my birthday, made her way here – apologizing profusely and kissing my face over and over upon her arrival, saying that she wouldn't ever be such a shitty friend again.